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The civil rights era is collapsing before our eyes

The civil rights era is collapsing before our eyes

Nikole Hannah-Jones writes: On May 7, amid the din of protesters, Tennessee’s Republican-majority legislature met to vote on a bill that would eliminate the state’s lone majority-Black and Democratic House district, divvying its voters up between three heavily white ones. Outraged, State Representative Justin Jones of Nashville stood in the hallway of the State Capitol and set afire a paper replica of the Confederate battle flag. The words “We will not go back” were printed along the top. But going…

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After charges against ‘Broadview Six’ are dropped, judge admonishes federal prosecutors

After charges against ‘Broadview Six’ are dropped, judge admonishes federal prosecutors

Chicago Sun-Times reports: Chicago’s top federal prosecutor announced the permanent dismissal Thursday of charges against the remaining members of the “Broadview Six” in a stunning hearing that revealed apparent misconduct by his staff before a grand jury during Operation Midway Blitz. In a rare courtroom appearance, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros told U.S. District Judge April Perry he’d learned of what happened three weeks ago. He said he didn’t believe any member of his staff had intentionally misled the judge. Then,…

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TikTok disproportionately served anti-Democratic videos during the 2024 election, study finds

TikTok disproportionately served anti-Democratic videos during the 2024 election, study finds

PsyPost reports: A recent study provides evidence that TikTok’s recommendation system tends to expose users to more conservative and anti-Democrat political content than liberal material. This ideological imbalance occurs regardless of a user’s initial political interests, suggesting that automation plays a significant role in modern information access. The research was published in the scientific journal Nature. Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi’s AI and Society Lab conducted the new research to explore how automated internet systems shape what political…

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Trump officials ‘freaked’ about the political symbolism of breaking Biden’s high gas price record

Trump officials ‘freaked’ about the political symbolism of breaking Biden’s high gas price record

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s war threatens to push gas prices past the record high under former President Joe Biden. They aren’t the only numbers the White House staff is sweating. While record high prices at the pump are a persistent concern, the bond market’s spike over the last several days also has aides and allies fretting, worried that borrowing costs will pummel a nation that runs on credit and make it harder for the Federal Reserve to cut rates….

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U.S. bears brunt of Israel’s missile defense, Pentagon assessments show

U.S. bears brunt of Israel’s missile defense, Pentagon assessments show

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. military has depleted much of its inventory of advanced missile-defense interceptors after expending far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iran than Israeli forces used themselves, according to Defense Department assessments described to The Washington Post. The imbalance, according to three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, underscores the extent to which Washington has shouldered the burden of countering Iranian ballistic missile strikes during…

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Listening to Joe Rogan was a stronger predictor of a Trump vote than watching Fox News

Listening to Joe Rogan was a stronger predictor of a Trump vote than watching Fox News

PsyPost reports: The popular program “The Joe Rogan Experience” has gradually transformed from a comedy podcast into a highly influential platform with real-world political weight. A pair of new studies reveals that listenership of the show strongly predicts voting for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, even after accounting for past voting habits. These results were published as a recent preprint in APSA Preprints. The media landscape has fractured over the past two decades in the shadow of the…

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Trump is a kleptocrat who will be remembered not for his ideas, nor for his power, but for his greed

Trump is a kleptocrat who will be remembered not for his ideas, nor for his power, but for his greed

Noah Shachtman writes: This new slush fund — set up with minimal guardrails, not even a definition of what constitutes “weaponization” — could take all the ethical disasters of the pardon market and multiply it by, well, 1.8 billion. Just think what people might be willing to do to get this money, and what Mr. Trump might get in return. This fund would institutionalize that ethical disaster. Forget the one-off deals or the handshakes at the 18th hole. This would…

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Ex-Proud Boys leader: Jan. 6 rioters will use slush fund payouts for ‘campaigns’ and ‘organizations’

Ex-Proud Boys leader: Jan. 6 rioters will use slush fund payouts for ‘campaigns’ and ‘organizations’

Rolling Stone reports: The exact criteria for receiving money from Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “weaponization” compensation slush fund remains an open question — but his supporters who feel they have been victimized are already lining up to collect a slice of the pie, and laying out plans for what they might do with it. “Anybody can apply,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers during a hearing before the Senate on Tuesday. He even suggested that former first-child Hunter Biden…

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ICE recruitment tweets are so racist that police feared they could incite neo-Nazi violence

ICE recruitment tweets are so racist that police feared they could incite neo-Nazi violence

The Intercept reports: Colorado law enforcement officials warned their counterparts across the country that social media posts by the Department of Homeland Security recruiting for ICE contained so many white supremacist themes that they could endanger the public, according to internal records obtained by The Intercept. The Colorado Information Analysis Center cautioned in a March bulletin that “violent extremists” might perceive “White Supremacy Ideology in ICE Recruitment Materials, Leading to a Potentially Increased Threat Environment.” The bulletin from an agency…

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U.S. is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say

U.S. is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say

The Guardian reports: A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts. There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it –…

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The president who sued himself

The president who sued himself

Anna Bower and Eric Columbus write: Donald J. Trump is famously the most litigious of all American presidents. From his years as a New York real estate mogul through both terms in the White House, he has used litigation not merely as a legal tool, but as a political weapon. In 2023, a federal judge fined him and his attorney, Alina Habba, nearly $1 million, for filing a “completely frivolous” lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and 30 other defendants. The judge described…

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Memphis on the frontline in the GOP assault on voting rights

Memphis on the frontline in the GOP assault on voting rights

  States across the South are being accused of a major assault on Black voting rights, as their Republican leaders race to redraw political maps ahead of the midterm elections. It’s the first time in decades they’ve been able to erase Black majority districts after a Supreme Court ruling last month ripped up the historic Voting Rights Act. And the orders to redistrict have come from President Trump himself. He was celebrating today after some success in the primaries for…

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State and local election officials are preparing for ICE to show up at the polls

State and local election officials are preparing for ICE to show up at the polls

Wired reports: Last week, as President Donald Trump prepared to leave the White House on his way to China for a state visit, he was asked if he would be willing to deploy troops from the National Guard or agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to polling locations during November’s midterms. “I would do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections,” Trump responded. Trump’s comments are the latest in a litany of confusing and sometimes contradictory statements…

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Iran consolidates control of Hormuz with island checkpoints, diplomatic deals – and sometimes ‘fees’

Iran consolidates control of Hormuz with island checkpoints, diplomatic deals – and sometimes ‘fees’

Reuters reports: The tanker crew gathered their courage and carefully navigated along a route designated by Iran, hugging the coastline and maneuvering their hulking vessel between island checkpoints through the Strait of Hormuz. The 330-metre-long Agios Fanourios I, laden with Iraqi crude oil and bound for Vietnam, had been bottled up off the coast of Dubai since late April. But on May 10 it set off for the strait after a direct deal with Iran overseen by Iraq’s prime minister….

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